Seth Walker plays Fall River on Saturday

Thursday

Feb 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMFeb 26, 2009 at 8:40 PM

You can hear the talented blues, R&B and country guitarist at the Narrows Center for the Arts.

Chad Berndtson

Snooks Eaglin would be proud. The famed New Orleans guitarist and singer died last week, but at least he can go hopefully knowing an entire crop of younger guitar talents with an unquenchable thirst for blues, R&B and country will keep a strain of him alive.

Granted, Seth Walker doesn’t sound exactly like Eaglin – he doesn’t sound exactly like anybody, though you can pick out everything from the soul of a James Hunter to the modern blues of a Robert Cray and the sizzle of prime Johnny Winter.

What Walker does sound like is a major new blues and R&B talent who, currently based in Austin, Texas, with his quartet, is finally headlining in northern markets, too.

A North Carolina native, Walker visits the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River on Saturday as part of an extended national tour that, among other highlights, brings him again to South by Southwest in March.

The guitarist and singer’s new album, "Leap of Faith'' (Hyena) goes on sale next week, and is an impressive 12-track introduction. Walker and his co-conspirator, famed Nashville producing veteran Gary Nicholson, go for a little of everything in the places where soul, R&B, blues and country rock overlap, from a jostling first single, "Rewind'' to "Something Fast,'' which features professed Walker admirer Delbert McClinton on vocals.

"This record was an exception in that it was the first record I tackled that I didn’t produce,'' Walker said. "I did all of them on my turf, which I produced, for which I wrote the lion’s share of the songs and I was the guy who decided on everything. But Gary, well I met him through a mutual friend in Nashville, and he liked my first record good enough that we set up a writing appointment. As soon as I met that cat, it was a no-brainer.''

Nicholson, a 2006 nominee for the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, boasts a number of hits, songwriting credits well into the 300s, and 26 ASCAP songwriting awards, having worked in his own bands as well as with McClinton, Guy Clark, Billy Joe Shaver, Wynonna, Bobby Bare and others.

Walker said his early songwriting efforts with Nicholson were a little intimidating at first but "I knew I was in good hands. I knew that opening myself up was the only way I was going to learn. Being vulnerable and scared is the only way you learn. Gary wanted to kind of test me a bit and get me outside my comfort zone, and we wrote nine out of 12 songs together. It was many tiers of different!''

Nicholson cottoned quickly to Walker’s song-based approach, and Walker said they had a "common language'' right from the beginning.

"That’s one thing I wanted to make sure of – that this record was packed with great songs that were well-crafted, and I knew he’d be able to whip that into shape,'' Walker said.

Walker grew up playing not guitar, but cello – his parents were both classically trained musicians, and he didn’t start on guitar until he was 17.

"The more you live the more pickles you get yourself into,'' he said with a laugh. "That can inspire songs, but just by diving into the craft of songwriting you get better. When I first started writing I wrote what was real and what came to me naturally. It still does, but I think you have to study, too. If you’re going build a house, you’ve got to make sure it’s built right or it’s going to fall down, right? Watching how Gary writes and studying other great writers has definitely opened my eyes to the craft of it.''
His musical heroes were the usual R&B, blues and roots suspects, but he also has a range of songwriting influences you might not immediately expect, including Nick Lowe, whose "Lately I’ve Let Things Slide'' Walker covers on "Leap Of Faith.''

"Nick Lowe tore me up!'' Walker said. "I used to do ‘What’s Shakin’ On the Hill.’ Gary and I went to see Nick Lowe while I was up in Nashville writing, and if I was a fan before, I lost it after that and I just think he’s the best. Just a cross-section of every good thing about music seems to be in him.''

"It’s like a painter knowing when to stop painting,'' Walker said of what he’s learned about songwriting. "You have to know when to say ‘brush down.’''